Its a strange world, so why not embrace it. AIASL is my personal take on pop culture, life, and so much more.

Friday, June 22, 2007

New Speed Racer and Transformers toons

So as the title of this post implies there are two brand new cartoons in the works, one for Speed Racer and one for Transformers. Lets start with Speed Racer first as we've got a bit more information on that one.

As reported in Variety Lionsgate (in their first smallscreen cartoon venture) and Nicktoons have teamed up to bring 26 new original episodes of a Speed Racer cartoon to air next year. The cartoon, set to hit the airwaves around the same time as the Wachowski brothers live action Speed Racer movie, will not just be a simple retelling of Speed's story though. The new cartoon will be a sequel series, following the adventures of our young Speed Racer as he enters racing school to learn to become the fastest driver on earth only to discover that he is actually the son of the original Speed Racer, Who has recently mysteriously gone missing. And just like the original Speed his rival at the school turns out to be his long lost brother the brand new Racer X. But upon learning of their fathers disappearance in the first few episodes Speed and Racer X team up to both stop nefarious villains from stealing the secrets of the the ultra advanced Mach 6 race car, and find out what happened to their missing dad. Adapted from the original series, Speed's younger brother Spritle is now the headmaster of the racing school, and Chim Chim the chimp is recast as a robotic mechanic.

Well, its on Nickelodeon, who I like, and its not like I'm doing anything else, so I guess I'll check this show out. I will say that I don't know that I've ever been too enthralled by the recent style of racing series like IGPX, or F-Zero GP. Although this property has some really good legs; and with the new movie coming out, even though the series and it are totally unrelated, I think it could be quite good. I also actually really like the idea of Speed and Racer X teaming up, even if the plotline could really lend itself to the ridiculous. I think what we really need to see is some of the character artwork. Lets keep an eye on this.

The second new series is yet another Transformers tv show. With the last TF series, Cybertron, firmly finished now and the new movie coming out in a few weeks, I'm actually surprised that this hasn't come about sooner. But it looks like we'll have a little while to wait. There has been no official announcement of the series yet, but care of AICN we do have this fascinating trade show one sheet. Check out that hyper stylized artwork...

Wow, now that is a new take on the Transformers. What I think a lot of people don't really pay attention to is that there have been like 6 Transformers series since the original (Generation 1, or G1). Some of them have been good, some bad, and one of them, in my opinion, surpassed the original, but I don't think any of them have looked like this. I've watched most of them, and as a fan I had to get past some pretty big changes to the mythos. But Transformers have proved so amazingly versatile, such a truly robust property that even though none of the series has lasted too long they always attract fans for one reason or another. This, my friends, will be no different. I'm really looking forward to this show. I actually have the entire Cybertron series sitting on my computer right now ready to watch as soon as I get a chance for a marathon. But this new one, just knowing that it will be such a high profile new reimagining makes me even more interested.

As we can see from the advertisement the show, and new toy line, will launch in Spring of 2008. And the show will air on Cartoon Network. I'm sure we'll get more info on this soon as convention season is just heating up. And they often save this kind of juicy news for then. Did I mention yet that I'm going to the San Diego Comic Con? Well, I am :D and its going to kick so much ass I don't even know what to say... Of course first I've got that whole other big event, my wedding, in only 2 weeks time. But my point is, I bet that I'll have something more for you all by the time we get into the end of July. And until we have more official, I'll keep my eyes peeled.

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Who the heck?!

I'm Geoff Chapman. at Canadian whose been living in the San Francisco for the past few years, I love all things pop culture. I especially love films, comics, kitties, lazers, video games, tv, robots, and kool-aid. I've got a great wife, and two amazing little boys. This is what I call, livin' the dream...